英籍传教士连福川眼中的青海藏区——《生锈的铰链:青海藏区的门户初开》述介简

内地会传教士连福川集其在青海藏区20余年之布道经历,著成《生锈的铰链：青海藏区的门户初开》一书,从政治、经济、社会与人文诸角度,尤以深厚的地理学涵养,较为全面地介绍了近代青海藏区的社会概貌。虽然连福川运笔不免有其偏颇之处,但重读其文字,不仅可以重新审视近代基督教在青海藏区布道之历史,增进对近代青海藏区社会的认识,亦可在对青海藏区自然与人文社会影像的认识的再认识、理解的再理解中,窥知在传教士将西方的知识和观念带到东方的过程中,因文化和族际差异产生的交流与碰撞。     

A New Look at Quartiles of Ungrouped Data

Traditional methods of calculation of quartiles for ungrouped data are based on interpolation. In this article we focus on three methods of defining measures of this kind. Then we present hinges that divide data into four parts by a lower hinge, a median, and an upper hinge. A hinge is “crudely, a quartile.” The preceding four techniques may yield different numerical answers when applied to the same set of data. Two tests are proposed and are used to evaluate the various methods for calculation of quartiles and hinges. Finally, an alternative method of calculating quartiles is provided; it retains desirable characteristics of quartiles and combines them with the advantages ascribed to hinges.     

Positioning Theory and Terrorist Networks

This paper makes use of a new development in social psychology, Positioning Theory, the study of the way rights and duties are ascribed, attributed and justified to and by individuals in local social groups. It links this theory with a generally Vygotsky inspired approach to understanding the means by which people are brought into terrorist networks. Focusing on the use of the Internet as a device to bring mentor and novice together, the unique role of chat rooms and personal conversations made possible by the Internet in this psychological process is revealed. Examining Vygotsky's ideas about the influence of a collective identity on the development of individual identities by psychological symbiosis in the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) sheds new light on the positioning of terrorist recruits. Incorporating Wittgenstein's concept of hinges into understanding the groundings of individual positions explains how the jihadist form of life turns on the unexamined grounding of beliefs about the non-believers.